PIA Press ReleaseWednesday, January 11, 2012

Geosciences bureau identifies landslide-prone barangays in EV

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, Jan 11 (PIA) -- The assessment on the barangays in Eastern Visayas shows that most of the barangays are prone to landslide incidents.

Of the 3,198 barangays assessed across the region by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, 2,531 villages were identified as susceptible to landslide occurrences.

The findings were the bases used by MGB regional director Roger de Dios to appeal to local officials to undertake the necessary precautions to avoid landslide incidents which could result to loss of lives.

De Dios stressed that the responsibility to remove or relocate people living in barangays prone to landslide lie in the hands of the local officials as MGB has no “police power” to undertake forced relocation of residents.

Based on MGB records, those vulnerable to landslide in Biliran number 99 out of the 113 barangays; 219 out of the 373 barangays in Eastern Samar; 645 out of 891 assessed barangays in Leyte ; 386 of out of 490 barangays in Northern Samar; 728 out of the 863 in Samar; while 469 out of 545 barangays assessed in Southern Leyte were identified as landslide prone.

It might be remembered that the entire barangay Guinsaugon in Saint Bernard town, Southern Leyte was buried in a massive landslide in February 2006. The incident killed over a thousand people.

MGB said that as they assess and identify the barangays prone to landslide, they immediately inform and suggest to local officials to find a way to relocate residents away from said landslide areas. (PIA-8)